Igol

Im reaching the same conclusion. Fine adjusting tool and chisel looks like the way to go.

Ive just started a timing belt change on my old tdi and fallen at the first fence. Whichever chimp fiddled with the fan in the past has rounded the nut so badly my 32mil spanner just slips off. Anyone got any suggestions for getting the bloody thing off?? I've already accepted that its going to need a new one.

I've found Deepio to be very effective on my bikes chain and sprockets and I'm looking forward to getting something equally oily to try in my dishwasher (£20 off ebay).

It only took my council a week to answer my question about which was the principle elevation on the house - corner plot so while I know which it is there is room for argument. The helpful planning development dept. told me that if I give them 85 quid and fill in a form they'd tell me. Now as its for a garden shed that seems a little excessive and to my mind if I stick the shed at the side where I was going to put it anyway and then report myself they'll investigate and give me an answer for nowt.

That was armed, like they all are, when they roll off of the line at Solihull

Thats how I read the MOT guide too. Im doing the other work so Ill be clearing them as well. If itd been the only fail then it would have been a quick about turn and argue the toss, although I read somewhere it can store up to 88 codes in tge ECU

My 97 Disco has just failed after many weeks of welding and fettling and cursing at the About to Break Soon light. Apart from the blown bulb in the number plate light, ARB link (that I fitted yesterday) pulling the bushes straight through and OS steering play detected at the steering wheel, there was also the dreaded ABS light. No advisories and a comment from the tester that he could see its looked after (well pass the bugger - you know I'll fix it). Anyway not a massive number of expensive jobs, just time consuming. Back to the ABS, I had tapped everything back in and cleared the first few faults off the system and the air gap issue went away and light went out over 5mph - so no current fault but faults stored on the ECU. I've had a look on the government MOT page and if I really couldn't be bothered sticking the paperclip in and out of the link until everything went away could I legitimately claim that as its a characteristic of that particular system it shouldn't be a fail, together with the relevant page of the RAVE manual?

I used to have many nightmares with the factory unit trying to remember which button to press to put the code in, that I actually had, then I found a really easy shortcut. I pulled the bloody thing out and stuck a DAB radio in, plug and play and no radio codes to worry about

Irwin bolt grips and a wrecking bar with a lake of penitrating oil and blow lamp worked last time I struggled with the sods and was thinking I'd be doing the drilling out thing.

It does have its advantages though. Take the other week when my daughter who loves playing with dads keys locked the doors as I was putting her in her car seat. No problem the doors open and I'm still strapping her in; then a car comes up the street so I push the door in slightly. CLICK! Faye press the button again for daddy. Oh bugger thats a quarter light going in then. Oh hang on the passenger door lock isnt fully down

After a new battery and serpentine belt my battery light and rev counter are still flickering and disco dancing, mainly at lower speeds or gears when tourists scared of corners and lanes get in front of me. I've had it hooked up to the multimeter and the figures that come back are as they should be but that's obviously when its not moving when everything is fine anyway. I jury rigged an old voltmeter to the battery this morning and when the dance/flicker was going on the needle on the gauge was solid. My thoughts are now its a bad connection rather than the alternator and I have tried to clean the terminal connection for the rev counter (white wire ??) but its still more black than copper coloured. Anyone have any other thoughts?

Bloody hell I wont be going for a Fiesta A newish Focus ST is looking tempting though....but the wife isnt convinced.

I've reached that point as well, with the exception mine will have at least 6 months left on if it goes in June as I'm planning. I admit i do enjoy the welding, problem solving and all thoe other minor irritations that come with landy ownership but I've a load of other jobs on at home and a little girl who'd probably like to see more of daddy than is feet sticking out from underneath this summer. I'm going for selling though, the AT grabbers have a load of tread on them and the other assorted bits I've added would no doubt fetch more, but it does mean that I've have a shell slowly disappearing off the drive and i'd rather have the room for the replacement. And as for the replacement bus, well I'd love a Defender but they've no safety features and as much as I love them they are horrible to drive. Then if I'm honest, I dont need the cargo space anymore and the road tax is also something I'd rather not be giving to the government so I may well be bowing out of Landy ownership.

Fogs are connected and working, the headlight leveling could account for some of the random wires, the rest I figure are just their as some sort of longterm Solihull joke. Sadly nothing runs near the alternator that could account for my dancing rev counter and occasionally flickering battery light - naturally the alternator itself produces all the right numbers.

Yep lots. A little fettle under the bonnet today and I've from memory theres 2 terminals in black boots behind the lamp cluster and a white block as well and thats just the passenger side.

I've found lots of strange terminals that go nowhere on my 97 ES model over the years; left side theres one by the front lights that really looks like it should do something but doesnt have a cooresponding terminal anywhere else and as everything works (well occasionally) I've learnt to ignore them

Thanks all. With some jiggling and jacking up and down and only a bit of brute force it slid on enough for me to start pulling it on with the nuts and bolts. Ok the very top one isn't on as I could feel the stud but getting the nut to the same point with fat fingers in the way wasnt happening. Clutch cylinders were re-bled and I went for the block of wood on the pedal and leave overnight to see if it'd firm up more and it was lovely and firm this morning. Freshly charged battery installed and fired her up. In to first and slowly off the clutch......Nothing! Reverse was the same and revving the tits off it still didnt coax her to pull at all. So I sat in the cab looking at the transmission through the hole and wondered what could have gone wrong and more importantly how much of 'a look' was I going to get from the wife and much fun it was going to be to strip it all out again. Then inspiration. I gave the diflock a good oiling yesterday and loosened it up. With that in the right spot suddenly I had all those nice gears again. Mind you its on a sorn since the start of the month and if you ask me the time taken to do the reasonably simple though heavy job......well it went wrong at the start of December.

Turned out that the hard to reach 2 at the top I'd gotten off originally but missed a nut on the passenger side so never had to touch the engine mounts and the box split with ease. There then followed various overly complex methods to get the transmission to slide back enough to gain access to the clutch until i removed the single bolt that was holding the exhaust bracket. The new clutch and release fork are in and I've a nice shot of the ball pushed throught the release fork that I'll have to stick on here. Due to my messing about with moving the box back I ran out of light before I could get it mated together again, managed to get it to the point the lower studs were flush with the outside of the bellhousing but then moved the jack and the bloody thing promptly slipped off and scared the hell out of my assistant. Plan today is get to the same point and then use threaded bar and nuts to pull it forward; I'm on a rough concrete drive and even with a board for the jack to roll on it wont overcome the friction.

I did mine in the summer after discovering that the front edge was rust and holes. Posted on here and did loads of research and got one that was meant to fit a tdi and that was about 6inches too short so I ended up chopping the good end off the original and welding it to the new one. But the actual tank is sat on the chassis rails and all the convaluted shoring I'd put in place to stop the plastic tank dropping out wasnt doing anything. Id spent the money (and time)on the new 'guard' so it went back on with a nice coat of hammerite but if I had been pushed for time with the mot due i would have stuck it through without and fabricated the new one to fit at a later date.

Thanks for that. I cant imagine 4 more tucked away in the small gap but another then again, I'll have a good probe tomorrow and see what others could be tucked away and then Boydies suggestion mat be coming into play. And its a 300TDi so weel done for finding that pic on Google Bowie, spent ages and never got an end shot. i knocked up a wooden cradle for the transmission that I then realised didnt allow for the cross member so supported it lovely - but didnt allow any movement So that could be used as an engine support.

Sunday will be my second attempt to swap the clutch out on the truck and I'm wondering if I'm mising something? I've followed Les's fantastic little guide and got to the point where I should be able to separate the bell housing from the transmission. I can get about a 1cm crack at the bottom and thats as much movement as it'll give me so I'm wondering if tucked away at the top where my fingers wont reach theres more fastenings? Currently i've got 10 assorted nuts and bolts, though from the searches I've done there could be 14 - though the pic that went with that one showed the 4 bolts where the bracing is and I dont need to remove those. So to separate the bell housing from the engine how many bolts/flanged nuts should I have sat in my little tray?

Just found one of Les' descriptions in the tech archive on a defender, so new clutch bits on order and an excuse to buy a bike lift that the wife will swallow.

Yep it figured it out and it is the drain plug. Now if someone would like to confirm what I suspect. I've fitted a new slave and master cylinder removed the damper and fitted a new copper pipe I've reverse bled the system and cant see any bubbles in the reservoir which has filled up nicely. The Clutch pedal still flaps around without any resistance and I did note that the push rod had about 5 mil lateral movement in it and was pretty solid otherwise and was a pain to move out of the housing when my fat fingers knocked it inside. So I'm either being impatient and there is air still trapped or the push rod has gone through and I'm buying a new clutch soon. Anyone like to confirm things for me please?

Sorted after a moderate amount of swearing. Technique that worked for me was to unbolt the master cylinder and push the pin half in to get through the bulkhead. Once through push the pin back a bit. Then with a more slender 16 year old in the footwell guiding the rod into position on the pedal, while I manouvered the master from the engine bay locate the pin on the hole. Once he had it in position and held half in, a long flatbladed screwdriver, again in through the bulkhead, pushed it home. Then the rain started so my reverse bleeding of the system will have to wait til tomorrow when hopefully i will have gears again.

Having fitted a new master and slave cylinder to my 97 ES its time to reconnect the clutch pedal. Obviously the Haynes big book of lies states this is just a reverse of taking it apart. The reality is naturally somewhat different. I have a steering wheel and the rest of the steering in the way, the seat - so I cant get into the footwell and I cant see the bloody hole its meant to fit into. My very long needle nose pliers havent helped much either. Do it need to remove the seat, wiring loom, front dash, steering to get in or is there a nice simple trick I'm missing?? I've no doubt that when its actually in it'll have been the clutch all along and I'll end up having to replace that too Help!!